Is it naive to expect a Fallout-style game to provide solid non-combat gameplay paths? Let's say I want to have 3 viable skill trees: Combat, Medic, and Engineer. Ideally, the game should be passable by someone who specializes in Medic and Engineer trees, with minimal investment in the Combat tree.
But there are 2 things which I can't get my head around.
You may want to play as "The Commish" but in a wasteland reality, you'll always be in "The Shield" instead.
Is there a way to develop non-combat mechanics, specialties, FUN gameplay paths? Sure, we can forget about Medic and Engineer being dominant skills/trees/paths, and give player also the option to level up some kind of PSI powers... so he can avoid combat by altering the minds of potential combatants. Make them fight each other, make them dose off?
Do a martial arts tree with a Vulkan Neck Pinch in it, so you non-lethally neutralize enemies?
What other paths are there? Is there a way to develop unique non-combat mechanics which are actually fun to play, and carve different paths thru the gameworld?
Deeper focus on Stealth, to the point where it is a complete mechanic just like combat, which can be used to overcome all combat paths? Will that be actually as fun as shooting Raiders in the dick?
Or maybe we should accept that combat in some form is mandatory, accept that there's no gameplay replacement for the visceral satisfaction of being an armored badass who kills things, and always expect the player to pump up combat stats, and also give him some optional pacifist skill-based solutions for when his secondary stats and a specific quest allow it?
The idea of being Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman who gracefully navigates a brutal world without killing a single living being, always appealed to me, or rather, the idea of the player being fully able to align his gameplay with a specific philosophy which goes beyond "Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando but he also knows something about medicine". But is it actually possible? Or will the gameplay be dull, unappealing, and Dr. Quinn will just end up being a Raiders sex slave?
I would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on this topic. Thank you.
But there are 2 things which I can't get my head around.
- Implementation. Let's say you're leaving the Fallout rat cave with shit combat stats, specializing in Engineer from the start. Rats will kill you. So what's the Engineer solution? Oh look, there's a broken auto-turret in the corner, you Repair it, and it kills all the rats! Problem solved! Except it isn't. Since the world is full of hostiles, you still solved it through combat mechanics, just by delegating them to something else.
Maybe later you find a broken robot which you fix and it acts like Cyber-Ian, ventilating your enemies for you. Or, similarly, as Medic, you get an NPC to fight for you, whom you keep alive by constantly healing them. Where's the pacifism one would expect from such characters? Nowhere to be found. These are just variations of the Combat Path.
So, the real solution is some kind of variation of Rat Diplomacy? Making beast NPCs sentient so they can intelligently benefit from your Engineering or Healing in dialogue skill checks?
Or should Medic and Engineer automatically get Stealth points so they can tip-toe around combat areas? - Believability. Tandi has been kidnapped by the Raiders! But don't worry Aradesh, I am a trained Medic who will go and rescue her!
You go to the Raiders. You are not combat capable, so you try to negotiate. You don't have the money to buy her out, but you spot a wounded Raider in a tent. You use your semi-advanced Medical Skills to heal the raider and in return they give Tandi back to you.
Okay.
So now every potential conflict situation should include someone who is wounded so you can move forward?
What is the realistic likely outcome of this scenario? Your pacifism presents zero threat. Raiders say "we need a medic" and you end up their slave. If you're a woman, you also get raped.
You may want to play as "The Commish" but in a wasteland reality, you'll always be in "The Shield" instead.
Is there a way to develop non-combat mechanics, specialties, FUN gameplay paths? Sure, we can forget about Medic and Engineer being dominant skills/trees/paths, and give player also the option to level up some kind of PSI powers... so he can avoid combat by altering the minds of potential combatants. Make them fight each other, make them dose off?
Do a martial arts tree with a Vulkan Neck Pinch in it, so you non-lethally neutralize enemies?
What other paths are there? Is there a way to develop unique non-combat mechanics which are actually fun to play, and carve different paths thru the gameworld?
Deeper focus on Stealth, to the point where it is a complete mechanic just like combat, which can be used to overcome all combat paths? Will that be actually as fun as shooting Raiders in the dick?
Or maybe we should accept that combat in some form is mandatory, accept that there's no gameplay replacement for the visceral satisfaction of being an armored badass who kills things, and always expect the player to pump up combat stats, and also give him some optional pacifist skill-based solutions for when his secondary stats and a specific quest allow it?
The idea of being Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman who gracefully navigates a brutal world without killing a single living being, always appealed to me, or rather, the idea of the player being fully able to align his gameplay with a specific philosophy which goes beyond "Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando but he also knows something about medicine". But is it actually possible? Or will the gameplay be dull, unappealing, and Dr. Quinn will just end up being a Raiders sex slave?
I would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on this topic. Thank you.
